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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsReal-Life Spies Infiltrated World of Warcraft And Second Life To Gather Intelligence On Gamers
Read the NSA document Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual EnvironmentsTo the National Security Agency analyst writing a briefing to his superiors, the situation was clear: their current surveillance efforts were lacking something. The agencys impressive arsenal of cable taps and sophisticated hacking attacks was not enough. What it really needed was a horde of undercover Orcs.
That vision of spycraft sparked a concerted drive by the NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ to infiltrate the massive communities playing online games, according to secret documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The files were obtained by the Guardian and are being published on Monday in partnership with the New York Times and ProPublica.
The agencies, the documents show, have built mass-collection capabilities against the Xbox Live console network, which boasts more than 48 million players. Real-life agents have been deployed into virtual realms, from those Orc hordes in World of Warcraft to the human avatars of Second Life. There were attempts, too, to recruit potential informants from the games tech-friendly users.
Online gaming is big business, attracting tens of millions of users world wide who inhabit their digital worlds as make-believe characters, living and competing with the avatars of other players. What the intelligence agencies feared, however, was that among these clans of innocent elves and goblins, terrorists were lurking.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/09/real-life-spies-infiltrated-world-of-warcraft-and-second-life-to-gather-intelligence-on-gamers/
DontTreadOnMe
(2,442 posts)They just want to get paid on the clock to play Warcraft...
Matariki
(18,775 posts)SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)Did they at least stop some horrifying Guild Raids or something?
Aerows
(39,961 posts)detected Leroy Jenkins after that awful situation in the Rookery.
SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)Leeeeerroooooooy Jeeeeennnnnnnnkins!
Rex
(65,616 posts)they needed something else to waste taxpayer money on. Evidently they can waste money as well as the MIC ever could!
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)"Yeah sure thing Boss. I need to get my Druid to 90 so I can network some potential assets. Oh and I'm getting a new video card. To fight evil! You never know where Al'Qaida is going to strike and if they attach Azeroth they could make Deathwing look like a walk in the park."
Bryant
MattBaggins
(7,897 posts)They should have gone to EVE.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)onehandle
(51,122 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)This is where our tax money is poured: into a sick, ubiquitous surveillance state that treats every American citizen as a threat and an enemy.
This is the fascist garbage our DEMOCRATIC President defends while working to fast-track the TPP and pursue whistleblowers.
This is what our country, and our corrupt political system, have come to.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)Chat channels during elections were filled with propaganda to elect Republicans, support the security state, and pretty much promote conservative talking points. It got so bad that you had to turn off local chat. Name a US server that wasn't plagued by it, including the RP servers like Feathermoon.
Glassunion
(10,201 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)littlewolf
(3,813 posts)however it is going to take a long time if ever for security services
to EVER gain trust any place in the world again, including in the US.